Centre gives violators six-month window to obtain environmental approvals

MUMBAI: The Union ministry of environment and forests and climate change (MoEFCC) has offered a six-month window for all entities who started construction without seeking environmental clearance (EC), to apply for the same. The notification, issued on March 14, states the ministry deems it necessary to bring all projects and activities in compliance with environmental laws at the earliest.

All projects which require prior environmental clearance but were brought before the regulatory authority for clearance after starting construction work, are to be treated as cases of violations. The notification states that even Category B projects (building construction) will be appraised for grant of environmental clearance by an expert appraisal committee and EC will be granted at the central level. In Maharashtra alone there are over a 100 projects that have been taken up without prior EC.

As per the notification, in cases of violation action will be taken against the project proponent by the state government or state pollution control board under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. Further, no consent to operate or occupancy certificate will be issued till the project is granted the EC. Criminal prosecution in the courts will be an independent and separate proceeding.

The cases of violation will be appraised by respective sector expert appraisal committees with a view to assess that the project has been constructed at a site which, under prevailing laws, is permissible and the expansion which has been done can be run sustainably under compliance of environmental norms with adequate environmental safeguards.

If the findings are negative, closure will be recommended along with other actions under the law, states the notification. If the findings are affirmative, or in other words, the environmental damage can be rectified,

then the project will be prescribed terms of reference, remediation plan and natural and community resource augmentation plan. The collection and analysis of data for assessment of ecological damage will be done by an accredited independent environmental laboratory.

The project proponent will be required to submit a bank guarantee, equivalent to the remediation and resource augmentation plans, with the state pollution control board. The quantum will be decided by the EAC and finalised by the regulatory authority. It will be deposited prior to the grant of EC and will be released only after successful implementation of the plans. The completion must be confirmed by the regional office of the MoEFCC, the EAC and the regulatory authority, states the notification.

Activist Zoru Bathena, who has been highlighting violation of laws for the Metro-III project, said there may be genuine cases where the violation may be inadvertent but said the government must publicise how many violators have been prosecuted till date. “It’s like the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme, where the government does not have the mechanism to catch those who have black money. But those schemes have 

not stopped the menace. If it is so difficult to comply with environment laws and even more difficult to implement them, then do away with the law itself,” said Bathena.

Source: ET Realty

GST Council clears all five enabling Bills; July 1 rollout now looks real

NEW DELHI: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council at its 12th meeting on Thursday agreed on all the provisions of State GST and Union Territory GST draft Bills. With this, all the five enabling draft laws stand approved by the GST Council and the government’s resolve to launch the indirect tax reform by July 1 appears to be on track. In its previous meetings, the Council had cleared three draft laws ­­— Integrated GST (IGST), Central GST (CGST) and compensation draft laws.

Once GST is implemented, states and the Centre will collect the same rates of taxes on goods and services.  If the GST law stipulates that a product or service will attract 12 per cent tax, then both the states and the Centre will get six per cent each under CGST and SGST.

The Centre will also levy and collect the IGST on all inter-state supply of goods and services. This has been kept in the law to ensure seamless flow of input tax credit from one state to another.

The Centre is confident that the new tax regime will become operational from July 1. Thursday’s GST Council meeting also approved the proposed cess on ‘demerit’ or sin goods such as tobacco, alcohol and aerated beverages, capped at 15 per cent. The cess would be levied for five years and can be continued longer. The Council has kept the option open for levying cess on any residual item as and when decided by the Centre and states.

The GST Council is headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley, who briefed reporters after the meeting on Thursday. Jaitley said all the Bills would now be sent to the Cabinet for approval and will be tabled in the current session of Parliament.

“The GST Council will meet on March 31 for framing rules for the GST regime,” Jaitley added. The critical meeting to complete the slabs for various goods and services will be held after March 31. The Council has already agreed on a four-slab structure — 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent — in addition to a cess on sin goods.

“The cap of cess on demerit goods on top of peak rate of GST has been kept at 15 per cent, but effectively it will be only 12 per cent,” Jaitley said.

Source- The New Indian Express

New building code to hold developers liable for safety

The Centre on Wednesday unveiled a code under which builders can be made liable for the safety of the structure. 

The code has been prepared by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) under the consumer affairs ministry.

The code is voluntary but states can incorporate them in their building bylaws. 

"The code contains provisions on use of new/innovative materials and technologies and on prefabricated construction techniques that can give fillip to speedier construction to meet the objectives of housing for all by 2022," consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan said after releasing the code on the occasion of the World Consumer Rights Day in New Delhi.

That apart, Paswan said the government has drafted a fresh consumer protection Bill after incorporating suggestions of a parliamentary standing committee and hopes to introduce it in the ongoing session.

In August 2015, the Centre had introduced the consumer protection Bill in Lok Sabha to repeal the 30-year consumer protection Act. The standing committee had also submitted its recommendations in April.

The ministry has accepted some of the recommendations of the panel and finalised the draft Bill, which has also been vetted by the group of ministers, headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley.

"The draft Bill was sent to the law ministry. We had proposed 80-odd amendments in it. So, the law ministry suggested us to bring in a new Bill," Paswan added. 

ON the building code, BIS Director (Civil Engineering) Sanjay Pant told PTI that it is a voluminous code with 34 chapters. 

It is used by local bodies for framing building bylaws. It is used by government departments in construction activity. It is used by private builders as well as professionals like architect, planners and engineers. It is also used for academic purpose.  

Asked about key changes made to the building code, Pant said planners, structure designers and supervisors were made responsible for the safety of the structure while geo-technical engineers and builders were not included.

"Now, builders are also made responsible safety of the construction. Builders have to give a certificate saying that the building has been constructed as per the planned design submitted to the local bodies," he said.

Apart from making builders liable, the revised code has made necessary changes keeping in view the requirement of modern buildings.

For example, the code specifies fire and life safety norms for high rise buildings and a proper horizontal evacuation system in high-rise hospitals and public buildings.

It also provides for universal accessibility for senior citizens and differently abled citizens besides encouraging use new building material and alternative smart technologies.

The salient features of the revised code are norms for solar energy utilisation, inclusion of modern lighting technique including LED, updated provision on piped gas supply in houses and hospitals, solid waste management and rain water harvesting, besides high speed lifts for tall buildings.

For ease of doing business, the revised code has a detailed provision for streamlining the approval process in respect of different agencies in the form of an integrated approval process through single window approach thereby avoiding separate clearances from various authorities.

Source: Business Standard 

Lok Sabha passes Enemy Property Bill

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016, which denies inheritance rights to heirs of individuals who left the country for Pakistan and China, completing the process after Rajya Sabha gave its assent to the long pending legislation last week.

The amendment was necessitated by the claim made by the Raja of Mahmudabad of Uttar Pradesh on properties belonging to his father which were declared enemy property and seized by the government of India following partition.

Lok Sabha had to pass a fresh bill to approve the amendments introduced by the upper House on the recommendations of the select committee which considered the legislation. While RSP member N K Premachandran moved an amendment, it was turned down.

Home minister Rajnath Singh said the purpose of the bill was to clarify the rules that inheritance law would not apply to enemy property a question which first arose in 2010. The government had passed an ordinance to enforce the law.

Singh denied the contention of some MPs that the bill was against “natural justice” and “human rights”, stating that Pakistan had seized the properties of Indian citizens and it was only natural that the property of those who migrated to Pakistan was not returned.

Among those who spoke on the bill were Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy, Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, CPM’s Mohd Salim and RJD’s J P Yadav among others.

Home minister Singh sought to raise the temperature around the claim of Raja of Mahmudabad by citing from the evidence of Uttar Pradesh on “talukdari” where the state had linked the royal family’s fiefdom to its collaboration with the English in suppressing the 1857 revolt.

Hesaid a system, “Sanad kabooliat”, was instituted where the individuals who had helped suppress the 1857 revolt were given properties on the condition that they would pledge support to the English.

Singh said Raja of Mahmudabad’s ancestors had secured “talukdari” by signing the bond with the English, hence neither the father nor the son could get rights to the properties.

Source: Et Realty

Govt expedites land acquisition to quicken pace of road construction

NEW DELHI: The government has expedited the process of acquiring land for highway projects in its bid to push the pace of road construction. Till January 2017, the highways ministry has issued final notification for acquisition of 4,100 hectares in comparison to the total 3,800 hectares for which similar notifications were done during the previous two years - 2014-15 and 2015-16.

A highways ministry official said they have already issued notification under section 3G of the land acquisition law where competent authorities will only need to disburse the compensation. Once 3G notification is done, government can allow contractors to undertake construction work at the sites.

Both the road wing and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under highways ministry acquire land for expansion of existing stretches and for building new roads. NHAI had acquired about 9,000 hectares during 2015-16 and it's likely to meet a similar target set for this year. Till January end, more than 7,000 hectares have been acquired, sources said.

Till now non availability of land has been the prime obstacle in highway construction across the country. Highways ministry officials said the pace of getting possession of land has increased after the government decided to rationalise the compensation to land owners. "More acquisition of land will result in rolling out higher number of projects and this will translate into more construction in the next 1-2 years," said an official.

Country's pace of highway construction has touched an all time high crossing 6,600 kilometers till February end, though it's nowhere close to the target of 15,000 km set by highways minister Nitin Gadkari.

The last record was construction of 6,029 km during 2015-16. The highways ministry told Parliament last week, "The slow speed of construction of NHs are mainly due to land acquisition, utility shifting, non-availability of soil/ aggregates, poor performance of contractors, environment/ forest/ wildlife clearance, rail over bridge and rail under bridge issue with railways, public agitation for additional facilities, arbitration/ contractual disputes with contractors etc."

Source - ET Realty 

Rajya Sabha passes Enemy Property Bill

NEW DELHI: The government’s clever floor management in the Rajya Sabha has ensured the passage of the contentious Enemy Property Bill that was languishing in the Upper House of Parliament because of the numerical majority of the Opposition.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley and junior parliamentary affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi foxed the thinly-populated opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Friday afternoon to ensure that the legislation is approved just in time to avoid re-promulgation of an ordinance.

The Opposition has been holding up the passage of the enemy property bill in the Upper House forcing the government to resort to re-promulgation of the ordinance five times during the tenure of the NDA government for want of the Rajya Sabha’s approval.The legislation concerns over 16,500 property worth about .`1 lakh crore of those who migrated to Pakistan.

Currently, they are vested with a government appointed custodian. Litigations by various citizens, distant relatives of the original owners, has created hindrance as the existing legislation doesn’t allow the custodian to dispose the property. The new legislation will make disposal of any such property easier.

The current ordinance was about to lapse, as Parliament must pass a bill to replace any ordinance within six weeks of its sitting. The deadline for the enemy property ordinance was March 14, as the Budget session commenced on January 31.

The Opposition was unaware of the Government’s urgency. With Friday being a private members’ business day, the Rajya Sabha took up introduction of a clutch of private members’ legislations and continued with discussion on private members’ legislation in the afternoon.

The government move came after the statutory 5 pm deadline for private members’ business time concluded in the Rajya Sabha. Though there were other private members’ bills listed for consideration the absence of the members piloting the legislation provided the government with an excuse to push for the enemy property bill that was listed for the day’s business.

“Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi did not officially issue a whip for treasury members as it would have alerted Opposition MPs. Naqvi, however, ensured that enough members were available in the House to ensure the quorum for passing the legislation, in case of an Opposition walkout to stall passage of the bill by bringing down the House attendance below the quorum.

It worked,” confided a government floor manager involved in the ploy. The objections by Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy and Samajwadi Party’s Javed Ali Khan did not carry the day for want of enough opposition MPs to press the issue. Racing against time, the government completed the paperwork to ensure the passage of the legislation. The Lok Sabha had approved the legislation last year.

The Lok Sabha secretary-general made the announcement that the bill has been passed by the Elders before the House was adjourned for the day.

Source - ET Realty 

India's infra development set to accelerate, meet global benchmarks

India's infrastructure development is set to accelerate and meet global benchmarks even if the private sector is not in a hurry to grab the vast investment opportunities that are opening up, top cabinet ministers said at the Economic Times India Infra Summit 2017.

The government is confident of meeting aggressive targets and wants private investment in infrastructure but it has enough resources and access to financing to implement projects, minister of road transport, highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari told the gathering of industrialists, chief executives and corporate leaders in New Delhi on Thursday .

“Our sector is moving and you all are welcome to participate.But don't misunderstand me we don't have any problems in investing. NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) is ` AAA' rated and investors want to invest in it. Our toll income is more than Rs 10,000 crore a year," he said. “We already have a lot of offers from investors... We have 101 projects which we can monetise and get Rs 1.2 lakh crore."

He said the government will give the highest priority to local investors and contractors.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu said the government had inherited challenges as no investments were made by its predecessors in capacity building or improving services. “We have a huge historic backlog in which not only we have not invested, we have hardly done anything in the railways," Prabhu said.

The government expects a big pickup in investments. Urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu said investment of Rs 2.25 lakh crore is expected under the smart city mission, of which the central and the state governments would offer about Rs 1 lakh crore while the private sector is expected to bring in about a quarter of the total, Naidu said, adding that the smart city concept was not elitist and would benefit everyone.

“The Smart City Mission is intended to be a game changer in respect of planning, execution and resource mobilisation," Naidu said.

India needs “political mainstreaming of the urban agenda" as population growth in cities has overtaken that in villages and better solutions are needed, Naidu told a diverse audience at the summit. Between 2001 and 2011, population rose by 91 million in urban areas as against 86 million in villages. In the next 15 years, about 250 million more people are expected to be added to cities.

“The need of the hour is for political mainstreaming of urban agenda. We need to intensify political and public discourse about urban challenges so that meaningful solutions emerge," Naidu said, admitting myriad challenges that Indian cities faced and illustrating how a government initiative like developing 100 smart cities across the country could elevate quality of life.

BOOSTING RAIL SERVICES
Prabhu said the government was working to bring rail services on a par with global standards. “We are trying to work on a holistic, all-pervasive plan of changing railways, not just creating infrastructure in a manner that will conform to the global standards to live up to the expectations of people. But unfortunately , it will take time," he said.

The railways was raising financial resources on an unprecedented scale and at the lowest coupon rates, he said. “We are raising these resources and putting them where required," he said. Revenue from freight and passenger fares have been under serious threat and despite that the government has made reforms in the freight sector by reducing prices, executing long-term contracts and offering discounts.

Indian Railways is also trying to raise revenue by introducing new services for passengers. It's emphasising infrastructure investment, which is leading to more traffic, Prabhu said.

A plan to save Rs 41,000 crore in 10 years by reducing energy costs has been prepared. Salaries and pensions are big costs over which the government does not have any control but the railways is conducting human resource audits that will improve productivity in the future.

The railway dedicated freight corridor will be operational by the end of 2020 and that will ease freight traffic. The railways is also working on the development of stations. Prabhu said the government will bar the manufacture of conventional coaches from April 1 and focus on those with much better features and technology.

Source - ET Auto